Rick awoke the next morning to MinMei's squealing as she ran out of her bedroom, tablet in hand. "Look, look, we made the entertainment news last night! I knew that was the right dress to wear last night. Ooo, I'm going to have to make some calls. I know that this is really going to jump start my career." Minmei ran back into her room to make sure her cell phone was on and Rick picked up the tablet that Minmei had left on the coffee table. Indeed on the front page of the entertainment section was a color photo of Minmei looking quite stunning in her electric blue dress. He scrolled down and the next photo was one of him and Minmei with Minmei looking up at him. If he looked at the photo from an unbiased view, it did look like him and Minmei were in love and Rick groaned knowing that it wasn't going to help his cause with Lisa. Continuing to scroll down, he read the article that accompanied the photos and realized that it was more of an gossip piece than just the usual Minmei sighting that was usually printed.
"Trouble in Paradise?"
Last night New Marcross's favorite couple was spotted at French restaurant hot spot Papillion. While Miss Minmei and Captain Hunter came in looking like a couple in love sources inside the restaurant say that the couple was less than loving. They noted that Captain Hunter looked distracted for most of the evening and Miss Minmei spent most of the time talking to the other patrons around her and drinking an expensive bottle of champagne on her own. It was at the end of the night that drew the most attention, when Minmei, during an introduction to famed clothing designer Francisco Vega lost a grip of her champagne glass, which broke on the floor almost causing injury to Captain Lisa Hayes who was saved by her date, the charming Captain Jack Archer. Captain Hunter seemed quite concern with Captain Hayes and quickly left the restaurant with an embarrassed Minmei in tow. We hope that Captain Hunter wasn't too hard on the sweetheart of Macross but would advise her to try and keep the drinking to a minimum.
On another note, Captain Lisa Hayes was also seen last night at Papillion looking hot, hot, hot! The usually serious Captain was rocking a reworked vintage Chanel dress showing off a body we didn't know she had. Check her out for yourself in the photo below. Her dinner companion we are told, is Captain Jack Archer from Granite City and here in town for training exercises. The two danced their way into our hearts with a beautifully executed waltz and makes us wonder a bit more about our lovely Captain Hayes.
Rick groaned as he finished the article and slid the text up to see a picture of Lisa looking as the article said "hot". In the photo, Lisa was stepping forward, with her left leg peeking out from the slit in her dress and she was looking straight into the camera with a open smile. Rick examined the photo carefully looking for any signs of her pregnancy. If he didn't know any otherwise, he would have no indication of her condition from the photo. Rick studied the picture a bit more, noticing how lovely Lisa really was, with her beautiful expressive green eyes, and milky skin and beautiful smile. The next photo was one of Jack and Lisa facing one another laughingly and the third photo was taken during the dance after a particularly difficult set of turns and Lisa was again clinging to Jack's arms and laughing up at Jack while he smiled down on her. Frustrated Rick threw the tablet onto the couch and debated what to do. Until Minmei was gone, he knew Lisa wouldn't give him the time of day and wondered what Jack was to her. Letting Minmei know that he was headed to base, Rick went to gym to work out his frustrations on the punching bag, others on base seeing him there and watching him working so focused on the punching bag wondered who it was that Rick was using as a mental target on the bag.
It was a little afternoon when a military jeep pulled up in front on Captain Hayes house and Captain Jack Archer pulled a duffel bag and a suitcase from the back of the jeep. Lisa expecting him, opened the door and welcomed him to her home with a big hug. "I'm so glad that I made the offer to let you stay here Jack, let me show you to your room." Lisa led the way to the extra bedroom/office she had where she had cleared out the area to make additional space for Jack's stuff. The room faced the front of the house, as Lisa preferred the back bedroom that faced the garden. As she gave him the tour of her small place she said, "I hope you don't mind but there is only the one bathroom, but I assure you it's very clean. There are clean towels on the shelves in the bathroom and let me know if you need anything else. I'm going to go finish making lunch, come into the kitchen after you are done settling in."
Jack assured her that everything was great and after dropping his luggage in the spare room and testing out the mattress which was heavenly compared to what he was given on base, Jack passed through the bathroom to wash his hands for lunch and joined Lisa in the kitchen.
"Lisa, really, I can't thank you enough for saving me from those military cots, who the hell was in charge of those?" said Jack as he walked into the kitchen. Lisa just laughed, "I don't know, I'll look at the planning docs and see if I can figure it and I'll let you know. If I have to be honest with you, having you here is good for me. I can tell you I need the distraction. I hope you don't mind me using you like this."
"Naw, don't worry about it Lisa,"smiled Archer. "You know I promised Riber I'd always look out for you, he maybe gone but that promise still holds true and Liz, even without that promise you know I'd still be here for you."
"Thanks Jack,"said Lisa giving the tall Captain a hug. "I can't tell you how much that means to me." Jack just patted her on the back and said, "I'm starving Lisa and whatever you made smells great, can we eat now?"
"Of course, let me just serve it up." Lisa grabbed two plates from her cupboards and placed a large roasted chicken panini sandwich on the plate and added some salad to the plate that she had ready near the stove. She prepped a plate for herself although took only half of the panini and brought both plates to the kitchen table. After lunch Jack cleaned up, saying it was only fair since she had made lunch and said that he would insist on helping out on any chores she needed done. He asked Lisa what she normally did on the weekends and he noticed that Lisa looked a bit sad when he asked. "Well honestly, I worked a lot, I wouldn't go to base though and did what I could using my laptop and tablet and sometimes I would hang out with Claudia and sometimes with Max and Miriya and with Rick. I haven't felt like going out in a while through.. and last night was the first time that I've gone out since New Year's Eve." Jack said that he understood and suggested that they take a walk around the neighborhood so that Lisa could show him where things were during his stay.
The two set out, Lisa wearing a dark brown suede coat with cashmere lining and leather gloves and Jack wearing a dark blue duffel coat with black toggles, they explored the small neighborhood and the different shops that catered to the military personnel that was stationed nearby. They returned home with some snacks and desserts for after dinner and a new action movie that had come out on DVD to watch that night. Jack was surprised when Lisa excused herself when they returned home, citing that she was a bit tired and wanted to rest before dinner. He had never known her to need to take a nap but thought that she might have been tired from the night before and early morning to make the room ready for him. He perused her small bookshelf picking up an action adventure thriller that he was surprised to find on her shelf and sat on the couch reading until Lisa woke. He hadn't mention to her the photo and blurb about them in the paper and decided that he would mention it to her after dinner and get her take on the whole thing.
Rick spend the whole day on base. After he had left the gym, he had returned to his small office in the hanger to eat the sandwich he had purchased from the vending machine. Rick didn't want to risk going to the mess hall and running into people who may have seen the entertainment news and would ask him questions about it. He ate quickly as the sandwich tasted like sawdust and wondered what he could do to get Minmei out of his house more quickly. Although he hadn't like the way that Kyle had treated Minmei, Kyle had done a good job keeping Minmei employed even when things were tough. The people still needed someone like Minmei to keep their spirits up and give them hope in the world. Rick decided that he couldn't allow Minmei to linger at his place, as he didn't know how long it would take for her to find a new place and he wanted to be able to try and move forward with a clean conscious and get Lisa back. Deciding to take back his life Rick made a phone call to Max and Lena, Minmei's uncle and aunt and had a long conversation with them about Minmei. He felt bad going to them but didn't know what else to do.
Rick got back to the house around 8pm, he had been gone all day, not even returning for dinner. The house was dark and Rick wondered where Minmei was. He turned on the TV and flipped through the channels finally settling on the classic original Star Wars movie that was on. He couldn't really get into the movie and his thoughts would continually drift back to Lisa and how she was doing. Rick was startled when Minmei came back into the house around 11pm. Rick stood up when she came in and said "Hi". Minmei just ignored him and went to the bedroom. He wondered what bee was in her bonnet and knew it wouldn't be long until she told him what was bothering her.. Rick was right. Twenty minutes after she had returned home, changed, and got ready for bed, Minmei came out of the bedroom and stood in front of Rick and the TV. Knowing he wasn't going to get out of this, Minmei looked at him glaringly and said, "I won't be home tomorrow, my aunt and uncle called me today, they want me to come over and have lunch with them and talk. Gee Rick, I wonder what they want to talk about?" With that, Minmei turned on her heels and stomped off to the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Rick groaned, he didn't think Uncle Max and Aunt Lena would react so fast to his call and just hoped that Minmei wouldn't stay mad too long.
Lisa woke up around 6pm and after freshening up went out to the living room where she found Jack sitting on the couch absorbed in the book that he was reading. He looked up from the book he was reading and Lisa just waved him back down and went into the kitchen to prepare something for the two of them to eat. The chicken that she had started roasting when they returned home before her nap was just about ready and Lisa noticed that Jack had added some potatoes to the oven to roast as well. She quickly steamed some vegetables for them and set the dinner table. Jack wandered in a few minutes later and after greeting Lisa, helped her finish preparing dinner. Dinner was quickly eaten as both Jack and Lisa wanted to watch the new action movie that they had picked up and after a quick cleanup of the kitchen, and making a try for the snacks and drinks to enjoy during the movie they settled into the living room to watch the movie. Lisa put the disc into the DVD player when Jack brought up the photo and article. "Hey Lisa, I forgot to ask you, did you see this earlier today?" Jack handed her the tablet and showed her the picture of them and the news blub. Lisa hadn't seen it and had a good laugh with Jack about it, until she flicked the page down and saw that photo of Minmei and Rick together and a surprised, "Oh" came from her mouth. She stared at the photo noticing how lovely Minmei looked and how happy Rick looked in the photo. Jack realizing what Lisa was staring at took the tablet from her hands and said, "Hey, sorry about that, are you ok?"
Lisa just smiled and nodded and said, "Let's watch the movie, shall we?" and went to turn on the player and start the movie. As they settled on the couch, with Jack sitting leaning to once side and Lisa sitting cross legged in the middle of the couch, the two friends quickly became engrossed in the movie on the large screen and sound system that Rick insisted that she buy just for that purpose. The next morning Jack woke up hearing Lisa running to the bathroom. He laughed to himself as Lisa did drink a lot of water last night but became a bit worried when he heard retching sounds coming from the single bathroom shared between the two rooms. Concerned, he got out of bed and pulled on his sweatpants, left the room and and went to knock on the bathroom door. "Lizzie, you okay?" The retching sounds had stopped and Jack could hear the water running and the Lisa came to the door opening it wearing a pair of fleecy pajamas. "Are you okay?" he asked. Lisa looked pale and Jack put his hand on her forehead to see if she had a temperature. Lisa let him, knowing that she didn't have a temperature but not wanting to tell him yet about her news. She knew that Jack would fly off the handle if he knew and decided to wait until he was back in Granite City before letting him know. Lisa mumbled that she was fine and said she was going back to bed for another hour. Jack let her pass and decided he would check on her a bit later to see if she was ok. Jack went to the living room and picked up the book that he had been reading the night before and then went back to his bedroom to read a bit before getting up. After a while Jack went to the bathroom to get ready for the day and realizing that he had forgotten to pack some cotton swabs, he opened the drawers around Lisa's bathroom vanity looking for hers. Not finding any in the drawers , he opened her medicine cabinet and took a quick glance around. A brown prescription bottle captured his attention and wondered what Lisa could be taking and she normally eschewed any types of medication, trusting more homeopathic remedies. Jack worried about Lisa, picked up the bottle and read the label and clinched his hands when he put two and two together.
Lisa yawned and wandered into the kitchen. Good smells were coming from it and Lisa wondered what Jack was cooking. She came in to find a smorgasbord of breakfast foods, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and waffles laid out on the stove and Jack sitting in the chair reading his book and sipping a cup of coffee.
"What is all this Jack? Did you cook everything I had in the refrigerator? There's enough here for a whole squad not just us..."
Jack putting down his book, took a glance at the food and said, "Naw, this wouldn't be enough for a whole squad, they eat a lot more than this. Start eating though, it's going to get cold."
Lisa took a plate and grabbed a waffle and some eggs and she sniffed them a bit before before taking a bite of them. Nodding her head, as the smell agreed with her, she put the plate down on the table and pulled out a cup and made herself a cup of tea. Jack watched her as she added strawberry slices to her waffles and then raised his eyebrows as she added chocolate syrup to her waffle and to her eggs. He watched her as she polished off her waffle and eggs and saw her glance at the stove and the remaining waffles. He said gently to her, "You should have another.. they taste best when they're hot." Lisa glanced again at the waffles and said, "well maybe just a half." As Lisa prepared her second waffle and sipped her tea, Jack picked up something from the table and shook the bottle in the air. As Lisa looked up at the sound and noticed what Jack was holding, he said, "Lizzie, is there something you've neglected to tell me?"
Jack waited for Lisa to say something. Finally she said in a deadpan voice trying to bring some humor to the situation, "Jack, I have something to tell you... I'm pregnant."
"Yeah no shit Lisa, I figured that one out on my own... what I want to know is why you didn't tell me?"
"I don't know Jack, I didn't want you to judge me or lecture me and well I was going to tell you after you went back to Granite City."
"So how far along are you?"
"About two months..."
"Who's the dad?"
Lisa was silent, she didn't want to answer as she knew how Jack would react, "I'd rather not say."
"I don't think you have to, I think I can guess and I think there's more to the story than you told me the other night. So we have time now, why don't you tell me all about it..."
Lisa sighed, she knew she wasn't going to get out of this and settling down, she told Jack the whole story.
Author's note: Thank you, thank you all for the kind reviews and sorry for the slow down in updates. I'm trying to get a few chapters ahead of posting to make sure there is consistency and that I have a path forward on the plot. Unfortunately my job is keeping me from writing faster than I would like.
