The Skull Squadron was on cleanup duty looking for any Zentraedi stragglers from Khyron's attack. The bridge crew was using a secondary bridge and was having a difficult time moving around in the much smaller space. They chatted as they worked, and Sammie, wondered outloud about Lisa's condition and when she was going to get out of the hospital. "I don't know why Gloval was so worried about her. We all got checked after the escape, so why did Lisa had to go in an ambulance and why is she still there. Do you guys think that there is something else wrong with her?" Vanessa joined in the gossip as well, "I'm not sure but I've heard Lisa throwing up in the ladies room the other day, she said she had some bad sushi, but maybe she caught a bug or something." Sammie sighed coordinating another flight plan for another squad, "Well I hope she gets better soon, I don't know how she handles all of this."

Lisa awoke from her sleep, feeling a bit nauseous. She was glad for the feeling as it made her feel that everything would be ok. Dr. Wu had checked on her the previous day when she had been admitted. Dr. Wu was concerned about Lisa being knocked to the floor and thought it was a good idea if Lisa stayed in the hospital for observation. Dr. Wu came by soon after Lisa woke, and after checking her vital signs, advised another day of bed rest for Lisa before being released. She mentioned that she would return that afternoon to check on her and the baby. Lisa knew that there was a risk she could lose the baby but hoped that the fall wouldn't have any negative effects. She spent the majority of the day on work items that she could handle through her tablet that Claudia had brought her and took a nap in the late afternoon.

Lisa was napping when the door slowly opened, and Rick Hunter quietly slipped into her room. He had been to the hospital enough to know the layout of the place fairly well and figured out a way to sneak in without being seen by the MP's on duty. It had taken a bit to find Lisa's room, but succeeded when a nurse, left her station when she was called by a patient. He was able to locate Lisa on the third floor of the hospital in room 309 and took the stairs up to her room to avoid being seen by others. He knew he had to see her, just to make sure she was ok, and had tapped lightly on her door. Rick heard someone coming down the hall and knowing he could get in big trouble if caught, decided that he had no choice and entered her room. The shades in the room were partially drawn and Lisa was laying on her side asleep. Rick not wanting to wake her up, tiptoed across the room and settled himself in the chair next to her. He wanted to reach out and touch her but knew she would wake up if he did. He was content to watch her sleep and felt an ease in his heart. It hurt him knowing how much he had hurt her, and wondered how he was ever going to make it up to her. He knew that he had to break things off with Minmei and knew that even that may not be enough to gain her forgiveness. Rick knew at that point he would do anything for the love of the woman lying in the bed.

Lisa slowly rousing from her nap, sensed the presence of someone in the room. "Claudia?" she asked sleepily. Rick hesitated before answering her, "It's just me, Lisa..." Lisa looked up to see Rick sitting in the chair next to her. She pulled herself on the bed and Rick tried to help her but she stopped him, "It's ok, I got it." Settling back down on the bed she asked quietly, "What are you doing here Rick?"

Trying to lighten the mood, Rick just said, "Well you didn't meet me at the park yesterday like you asked so I decided to come and find you instead." Lisa grimaced at his bad joke and Rick hurried on to say, "Truthfully, I was worried about you. I saw the hits that the SDF-2 and SDF-1 took and I just needed to see that you were ok. Lisa, I just want to tell you how sorry I am about everything that's happened the last couple of weeks and I want you to know how much..."

Lisa interrupted Rick at that point, not ready yet to hear any apologizes from him. In her eyes, it was too late and she didn't want to continue on this emotional roller coaster she'd been on the last couple of weeks. "Rick, it's alright, it is what it is and we can't change what's been done. I'd like to move forward from this if we can."

Rick not understanding that Lisa wasn't forgiving him, went on earnestly, "Lisa, I swear things between us will be different. We will work through this. I promise..."

"Rick, stop! I don't think you get it. I'm not forgiving you, I'm just asking that we move on from this. I'm not going to be mad anymore but we aren't going to be going back to being friends or whatever else you think we should be in your crazy head."

"No, Lisa, what are you saying? I don't think that I can.."

Lisa interrupted him again. "Rick, please don't finish that sentence.. There's something I wanted to talk to you about anyway, and while this isn't the way that I imagined telling you, I don't know if there really is any good way of telling you this."

Rick feeling a sense of dread, dropped into the chair and just waited for whatever Lisa was going to drop on him. He couldn't believe that she was giving up on him wasn't going to let him try and make it up to her. He felt a little numb and watched as Lisa pulled something from a folder next to her bed. She held it in her hand and she paused for a minute before shakily passing it to Rick.

Rick noted her shaking hands and took the items from her, wondering what it could be that would cause Lisa to act this way. He studied the first grainy photo she gave him and noticed that each photo had Lisa's name on it and some measurements There was a small kidney bean shaped item in each of the photos and Rick realized that he was looking at an early sonogram photo. He remembered seeing the ones that Max had shared with great pride when Miriya was pregnant but was at a loss as to why Lisa would be showing him these photos, much less why her name was on the photos.

As Rick looked at the two photos he held in his hands, Lisa said softly, "Rick, I'm pregnant."

Rick was at a loss for words. In his wildest dreams he never imaged that this would be what Lisa would have had to tell him. He just looked at the photos, looked at Lisa and then looked at the photos again. He saw Lisa's anxious face and realized that not only had he humiliated her by taking up with Minmei, but on top of that she had to deal with the anxiety of finding herself pregnant by someone she didn't think cared about her. Rick didn't really know what to do at that point, but he did know that he had to show her that he could be there for, that he could be a man and that all those times she had believed in him and trusted in him weren't in vain.

"Is that why you are here, in the hospital?"

Lisa nodded her head, "Gloval didn't want to take the chance that something could have happened when I fell on the ship."

Rick felt a moment sense of panic and worry. Even though he had just heard the news, he couldn't bear it if something happened to Lisa or to the baby. "Are you ok? Is the, is the baby ok?"

Lisa nodded her head, "Yes, Dr. Wu thinks that everything is ok, she's going to check on me again later today to be sure but she wants me to rest until then. The pregnancy is still early Rick, there is still a chance that I may miscarry.."

Rick didn't want to hear that, he stepped up to the bed and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Lisa. "Shhh, Lisa, that's not going to happen ok... don't worry." He wanted to hug her but didn't know if it would upset her so he just sat there with the sonogram photos in hand.

"You mentioned Gloval knows, anyone else? Claudia I suppose..."

"Yes, that's it Rick. I needed someone to confide in they've both been very helpful since I found out." Rick felt hurt that she hadn't turned to him, but he understood why she couldn't. "I see...and um, are you feeling ok?"

Lisa laughed, "Other than the bouts of nausea and the sleepiness, everything has been ok. The doctor has me taking prenatal vitamins and asked me to eat a little better and to cut out the coffee, but otherwise I'm fine."

Rick just nodded his head and then asked, "So where do we go from here?"

Lisa just looked down to her hands, "I don't really know, I just got to the part where I had to tell you, I didn't really think about afterward. I.. I don't want this to interfere with your relationship with Minmei, Rick. We can discuss your level of involvement in the child's life after the baby is born."

Rick became angry, angry at himself and angry that Lisa would care about trying not to affect his relationship with Minmei, instead of thinking about herself. He was damned if he was going to let Lisa go through this pregnancy alone. Controlling himself and realizing he couldn't get mad now, he just patted her hand and said, "Ok, we'll talk about it later."

The door opening startled them both and Rick got up from the bed to see Dr. Wu coming into the room followed by an orderly pushing into the room a small cart carrying in some equipment.. Recognizing Capt. Hunter from base and the newspaper reports, she nodded her head in greeting and said to Lisa, "Hello Capt. Hayes, I see you have a visitor. I hope he knows that you need a lot of rest and that stress and worry can be very bad for you." Dr. Wu gave Rick an insincere smile and said, "I hope you understand Captain Hunter?" Rick understood the underlying tone of Dr. Wu's message and said, "Yes ma'am, I understand"

"Good, I'm glad we are all in agreement here. Well, I need to check on my patient here, do you mind if I ask you to leave?" asked Dr. Wu.

Rick not ready to leave yet, asked "Are you going to check on the baby?"

Dr. Wu looked at Lisa who spoke up and said, "Dr. Wu, what do you plan to do?"

"Not much, your physical exam looks good, I just wanted to do a check with the fetal doppler and if everything goes well, you can go home tomorrow afternoon."

Rick asked, "What's a fetal doppler?"

Dr. Wu, feeling a bit protective about the young captain under her care, said a bit annoyed, "It allows us to hear the heartbeat of the fetus."

Rick, annoyed that she called his baby a fetus, looked to Lisa and asked, "Could I stay? I promise I won't get in the way."

Lisa eager to hear the baby's heartbeat again and wanting the reassurance that everything was okay, just nodded her head. Lisa said a low "thank you" to Dr. Wu who just nodded her head in understanding and used the electric controls on the bed to help Lisa get into position. Realizing that Lisa was only wearing a hospital gown and not wanting to put her in a more awkward position, Dr. Wu asked Rick to turn around as she helped Lisa pull the hospital gown up past her belly. The Dr. then used the bedsheet to cover Lisa from her hip down and tucked the sheet under her so that it wouldn't come free during the examination. Rick sat back down in the chair as Dr. Wu started to run the wand over Lisa's belly and was rewarded with a strong whooshing, pounding sound. He asked in a awed voice, "is that the baby?" and was rewarded with a "yes" from Dr. Wu. He could see that Lisa had tears in her eyes and wished that he could be holding her hand, sharing this with her instead of being a spectator. Dr. Wu smiled and read her instruments, and said, "Well Lisa, it looks like everything reads normal. I'm going to keep you here one more night and then you can be discharged tomorrow. Try and get some rest. Ok."

Before Dr. Wu left she looked at Captain Hunter and said, "I suggest you leave now as well, before I inform the MP's that you are here. I believe that there is an order in place?"

Lisa looked at Rick in question. It was obvious that Claudia didn't inform Lisa about the restraining order against him.

"I think you better go," said Lisa dryly, understanding what was going on. Rick hurried to say good bye to Lisa and said, "I'll pick you up tomorrow and take you home ok?"

"No, Rick, you don't have to. Claudia's already agreed to help me tomorrow, I'll be fine."

"But Lisa.."

"Rick, please understand, I can't be around you right now, I just feel like we will just argue over nothing and it'll just stress me out. Please."

Rick frustrated with how things were going and realizing that now wasn't the time to talk to her about anything, just nodded his head and left, holding in his hands the sonogram photos.

Rick walked home home slowly, wondering what he was going to do. At times like these, he wished that Roy was still alive to help him wrap his head around what was going on and what to do. Rick realized that this wasn't a situation that he was going to be able to get out of. He stopped at the park that he was supposed to meet Lisa at and sat down on one of the green benches surrounding the small lake. It was cold out the and wind blew through his coat, chilling him to the bone. There was no one out and it was slowly getting dark and the street lamps started to flicker on. He looked at the small scrap of paper that he held in his hand and stared at the image of his baby. Rick didn't know if he was ready to be a father, much less having a baby with a woman that he wasn't in a relationship with. Yesterday's attack forced Rick to realize that the woman he wanted in his life, the one he wanted by his side, the one he couldn't live without was Lisa. He didn't know why it took him so long to figure it out and knew that he would have to prove to her that he could be the man for her and be a great father to their baby. As for Minmei, he knew that he couldn't continue to string her along and that he knew that he was going to have to ask her to leave. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation. Taking one last look at the photos, Rick carefully put them into his inner coat pocket, taking care not to crease them before heading home.